Top 100 Board Games 2021 Edition – 20 through 11
On December 1st I’ll be unveiling 10 through 1 of my Top 100 Board Games (of all time) 2021 Edition. But before that, you can catch up on all the board games on the list. Last night over on Malts and Meeples I streamed 20 through 11. This included four new games that weren’t on the 2020 Top 100 Board Games list.
If you want to see the Top 10 games on the list live, click the notification bell on the scheduled stream. I hope that you can join me then and that you’ve enjoyed the previous parts of my Top 100 Board Games (of all time) 2021 Edition. Or, if you just found it, you can catch-up with the links below.
Top 100 Board Games 20 through 11
20. Super Fantasy Brawl
Super Fantasy Brawl is a two player (can be more but really two player) battling game where you are fighting to knock out your opponents characters and complete objectives to get trophies. The first player to get to five trophies wins the game.
This is not my normal type of game, two player only games tend not to hit my table as often. And head to head battling games are not ones I gravitate towards, but Super Fantasy Brawl is really good. All the characters play so differently, and you can create a team that does all sorts of different things. I think I have 9 or 12 different characters so you can have a ton of different teams of three.
I also like in this game that you can get trophies for knocking out other peoples characters, but they don’t go away. So it’s not too much of a blow. And you probably won’t win just be knocking out enemy characters. You need to deal with the objectives as well, if not to get them, to keep your opponent from getting trophies that way. And the game is easy to learn and play, which is great.
19. Clank! In! Space!
A deck building game, Clank! In! Space! does a good job of not being too simple. In it, you are racing around a ship, hacking into consoles to get access to the treasure room, grabbing a treasure, running out, and hoping you don’t cause too much noise. Because Lord Eradikus is on the ship and if you clank about too much, he’ll find you and stop you.
This game works so well for me because there’s more going on in the game than just the deck building. How much do you push your luck and run into the treasure room. And some of the better cards you can buy in the game, that might combo with what you are doing can create more clank. When you clank you add a cube to a pool that Lord Eradikus will draw from when he actives. He might draw a neutral cube and nothing happens, but too many of yours drawn and Eradikus stops you.
18. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
I feel like I always put this disclaimer out there, I don’t love social deduction games, but I do love Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Why, because it gives you something to talk about right away in the game. Most social deduction games build to the point where you are maybe hazard a guess as to who the “bad guy” is. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong does that from the start.
How? Well, the murder picks a weapon and clue in front of them. The forensic scientist knows what they are, but they can only send up reports to tell the detectives. So the report might be the murder location and the forensic scientist picks from a list on a tile which one makes the most sense. The game really starts and accusations start when that first piece of information is put out.
This is also a social deduction game where being in any role, forensic scientist, murder, accomplice, witness, or a just a regular detective is a lot of fun. Everyone is trying to figure out what the combo of clue and weapon is. And even the murderer, accomplice, and forensic scientist are trying to figure out the story either to direct people to the clue or weapon or away from it.
17. Hanamikoji
We go from a big group game to a two player only game in Hanamikoji. I talk about this one a lot because I really love the game. It’s such a fast but thinky two player game. In it you are trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. The game, however, is extremely clever in how you give them gifts.
There are only four actions you can do in the game and each player does all four once per round, alternating turns. You can save a card to give to a Geisha face down, you can discard two gifts face down, you give your opponent the choice of three gifts and they pick one, or you give your opponent the choice of two pairs of gifts, and they pick one. You are trying to win favor with four Geisha or 11 points worth of Geisha to win.
The game plays extremely fast, but the decisions are really tough. Giving something to your opponent is always a rough decision as to what you want to even let them pick from. I feel like what you do, though, is simple enough that I can pull it out with most people as a two player game.
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16. Welcome To…
The first of four roll and write games on this section of the list. Welcome To… has long been one of my favorites in the genre. In it you are creating your perfect neighborhood. You are getting all the house numbers ready, putting in pools and parks, and building white picket fences.
Every turn everyone is playing as well, which is really nice, so there is little to no downtime in the game. It’s also fun because you are trying to optimize how you are scoring points. And the three objectives that can give you points also gives you a good direction to go in the game. This one has a fair number of rules but that makes it interesting because it’s a bigger roll and write game.
15. ICECOOL
This game is just silly fun. It’s one that I love to pull out for a game night because flicking penguin high school students around a board to try and get fish and avoid hall monitors is a lot of fun. The game is simple, get through doorways and get fish which are points. Or all the hall monitor, hit the penguins students to get their student ID and get points.
ICECOOL works with all ages and really with all groups that I’ve played with. It’s just a silly good time for people who have been drinking or for families to get to the table. And the board, which is the box, that builds out into this big 3D board is just great. Add in ICECOOL 2, which is the same game, you can now play on a massive board with eight people.
14. Sonora
Another dexterity game, but also another roll and write game. In Sonora you are flicking discs onto a big board. The board is split into four areas, one for each part of the roll and write portion that you fill in. The discs have numbers which determines what number of things you fill in on that roll and write portion.
What I l love about this game is that it’s full of combos. If a fill in a spot in the upper right, that might then let me fill in something in the lower left, and that might let me fill in something in the lower right. So the whole filling in things is a really interesting and fun puzzle to optimize what you are doing. And it’s always fun to complete a combo and feel smart.
13. Railroad Ink Challenge
Another roll and write game as well. Railroad Ink was already on the list, but I prefer Railroad Ink Challenge. Why, because of the challenge aspect. Much of the game is the same, you are trying to connect routes, get long stretches of road and rail and fill in the middle. But the challenges add in a nice twist and something to focus on.
The challenges are basically objectives. It might be something like, have a full row or column filled in by round 4, and that’ll give you 4 points if you’d done it by then, fewer the longer it takes you. Or fill in nine spots to create a square. It just gives you something else to go for and think about in the game. And it’s already fairly challenging even without the challenges. I just like the extra challenge, direction that the game gives you in this version.
12. Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade
The final roll and write game in this section, Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade is the most thematic roll and write that I have played. It somehow manages to pull off the feeling of playing a pinball machine. You get points for bouncing off the bumpers and knocking down targets. If you knock down a full group of targets you get a bonus and you’re just seeing how high a score you can get.
I like that the game comes with four different boards, as well. There is a circus one that is just a simple pinball machine. The Cyber Hack board gives you a secret location where you are doing a run and hacking into the machine for more points, but also a press your luck for how long you stay up there. Each board feels different and really fun, and having little pinballs you move around the board to keep track of where you are at is great too.
11. Xenoshyft: Onslaught
Finally, we have Xenoshyft: Onslaught. This is another deck building game and a tower defense game. I call it Starship Troopers the board game because you are defending your base from wave after wave of bugs. And you are doing that cooperatively, which is fun. And it does a cooperative thing that I don’t see in other deck builders or cooperative games.
You are all setting up your defenses at the same time. So, I might have five troops but only room to put out four of them, and you might have only a single troop in your hand. I can give you one to put in your lane of defense to stop the wave of bugs coming in that side. And you can use grenades from your hand to help deal with bugs on someone else’s lane as well.
Plus, you get money every single turn. So even if you shuffle horribly and end up with no money in your hand, at the start of each turn you get money to add to your hand and deck. So you are always able to improve and add to what you have. And what you buy that turn doesn’t go to a discard pile, you can play it immediately.
The Next 10
So no stream next Wednesday. It’s the day before Thanksgiving, but to go along with that, two episodes of Hawkeye are coming out that day. That means that I have some TV to watch for the 10 Minute Marvel podcast. Instead, the Top 10 are going to be coming out on December 1st at 8 PM Central Time.
If you want to know when I am going live, you can subscribe to Malts and Meeples and click that notification bell. That’ll let you know whenever I go live. Once I’m done with my Top 100 list, my schedule might be changing, depending on a few things, so clicking the notification bell will let you know for sure when my streams are happening.
Which of these games do you like the best, or would you want to play?
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